Since no one has put out a notice of this, I thought I would. I think everyone on the FORUM will enjoy it. Sunday's NYTimes, the Week in Review section, carried a long commentary on the corporate scandals of the past several months. Under the heading "Salemanship Got Us In. Can It Get Us Out?" the whole page above the fold is on hucksterism and how "American" it is. "Hucksters are rife on the American scene," runs a sub-head. "Just read 'Huckleberry Finn.'" One paragraph begins, "It turns out that the end-of-the-century sales pitch was not so different from those of the swindlers among the river-town rubes in 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.'" Paralleling the literary allusion is an icon of late nineteenth-century hucksterism. Centered on the page is a large color image of a 19th c. bottle of snake oil--"RHEUMATIC REMEDY." "SAFE" is printed in large capital letters, and a drawing of a huge steel bank safe marked "Warner's Safe Remedies" in the middle of the label makes the point literal. Guaranteed by Warner's Safe Remedies Co., this elixir will cure "Sciatica, Lumbago, Gout, Neuralgia and All Rheumatic Affections." They're hard to read, but down in the corner of the label a person can make out some names--Arthur Anderson, Enron, WorldCom and a lot of others. Nah, that's impossible, of course. Oh, did I say? 12% alcohol. The references to Huck Finn add authenticity to the piece, as well as a certain intellectual and artistic panache. The writer, Jennifer Steinhauer, counted on her audience's familiarity with this quintessentially American novel, especially the King and the Duke but much else, too, that the novel exposes about the less-than-sunny side of America. The piece makes the corporate book-cooking recently brought to light look like a high-toned Royal Nonesuch. The piece wonders if there will be any genuine remedy. We might wonder if that includes even one as mild as tar and feathers? Terry Oggel